Ethiopian Mission Trip

10Jan

Dear Brethren,

It seemed appropriate to take a moment to bring you all up to date on the Mission activity that Nancy and I are currently participating in. We left the USA on the 8th of January headed to Ethiopia via Uganda. The journey in and of itself was somewhat long and arduous, but it went fairly smoothly without any complications. There was, however a bit of a hitch in the travel plans, in that the various individuals that we would normally be working with were all going to be out of the country at the time of our coming through Uganda; hence we had to develop plan B. There was a brother and his wife, whom we had met on a previous visit to Uganda who graciously came to our rescue; praise God for caring and loving people. Although they had already made certain plans for their family, they willing put those plans aside and agreed to pick us up from the airport and to give us lodging for the night and to deliver us back to the airport the following evening for our flight to Addis Ababa. It was very much appreciated and most importantly a provision of the Lord for Nancy and I to catch our breath, which we were very much in need of.

Our objective for this trip was (1) to be able to strengthen the Brethren in the Lord in Uganda, both on our going and on our coming back and (2) to facilitate the continued development of the Ethiopian NGO. They, the Ethiopian NGO, have had to recently go through a Program ‘Proposal’ reconstruction because of an error in the previous proposal under which they were working. The details of which and the hurdles that had to be jumped over, would be too laborious to explain in this forum. It required the development of a new proposal, which required much of our time and effort in our last visit in September/October of 2014. We can say with a truth that God help us to overcome many obstacles that were thrown into our path. That new proposal, I am pleased to say was approved by the Office of Charites and was implemented on the 1st of January 2015. My Mother use to say “There is a silver lining in every cloud”. The silver lining in this particular cloud was that they allowed us to drop the number of beneficiaries from 150 a year to 75 children and 20 widows. It was a tremendous blessing and a major victory in the overall development of this program and I trust that God will give us the wisdom to grow the program and to bless and develop the Christian virtues in the various beneficiaries that are participating in the program.

I also want to request prayer concerning this great work, for there is a wind of change that is blowing in the spirit concerning Ethiopia pertaining to the Word that has been given and the platform that has been established so that, the work might succeed. It is something that I have been sensing in the spirit since this last October trip when God abruptly brought us out of Ethiopia prior to our scheduled time; it is something that I have been seeking the Lord concerning it. God has of yet not revealed His plans and purposes, but I believe that God in His infinite wisdom will give men every opportunity to work within the framework that He has created. God has created that platform, and he will step back for a space of time to see what the brethren that he has chosen to do that work will do with it, as to the grace that God has given them to do it. There is a scriptural reference to this thought and it is found in Gen 2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. Can you imagine that; God created a thing that God called a beast and fowls in a non-descript form than he stepped back to allow man to finish the job; for we know that name in a scriptural understanding means nature. So also are the things that God intends for man to do in the earth today. God will do what God has to do in order to create a platform off of which the work must be accomplished. When that is accomplished God will step back and allow man to have his opportunity to do what he man must do in the exercising of the authority that God has given him to do it. So brethren, please pray with us concerning the work in Ethiopia as to its present place of existence and as to whether or not we, here in Ethiopia as well as globally, can step up to the challenge that is being given to us to complete.